And Until the Tide Comes In
by ice-crisis
Summary: Yuugi hopes that a day at the beach will help Yami de-stress, Yami can find angst in just about anything, and the two of them build sandcastles.  Could be Yami/Yuugi if you tilt your head in the right direction.


**Hey there! I wrote this story something like a year ago and was quite fond of it... but only ever showed it to a few people. I was looking at it again today and thought - why not? So here it is. I hope someone out there enjoys it. :)**

**Disclaimer: **The characters in this story are not mine and I claim no ownership of them. Nor am I making any money. I'm just borrowing them for my own diabolical amusement.

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**And Until the Tide Comes In**

The sunlight is bright on the waves, and its rays spread across the sand like melting butter, warm and golden. On the air there is just enough of an early autumn chill to ward away the crowds, leaving the seaside pristine and empty. The water is far too cold for swimming, but they don't mind. That's not why they are here, after all.

"What do you think, another tower?"

_Perhaps. On the right side, maybe?_

"No way!" Yuugi laughs as he grabs the bucket. "It'll have to be on the left; otherwise it'll be completely lopsided. I thought Ancient Egyptians were supposed to be good at this sort of thing," he teases.

_I was a pharaoh, aibou, not an architect_, Yami responds, amused. _I imagine I had someone to design buildings for me. I also think they were probably made of something more substantial than sand._

"Oh hush," Yuugi responds lightly, shoveling the stuff into the bucket with his hands. "Don't be difficult."

Nonetheless, Yami can tell that Yuugi is pleased with his response. After brooding for so long over his lost past, acknowledging it with a joke is a great step forward. It's exactly the atmosphere the boy had been hoping for when he declared that morning that today they were going to the beach, just the two of them, for 'a day in the sand.'

"We need some time away from this mess," he said. "To forget about tournaments, and Millennium Items, and relax for once. We need a break."

Yami couldn't argue with him.

Yuugi pauses, considering the full bucket. Absently, his hand strays to the Millennium Puzzle, one finger, damp from the sand, trailing a line of moisture as it strokes down an edge of the pyramid.

Yami's soul shivers, as if he himself has been touched, but he shakes off the feeling.

_Something wrong, aibou?_

Yuugi shakes his head.

"Would you like to make this one?" he asks. "I mean, I've done most of it so far, and that's not really fair, is it? We can't really build a sandcastle _together _if I'm the one having all the fun, right?"

Yami chuckles.

_If you like_, he says. Immediately, the world becomes brighter, and he breathes in the salt tang on the air as Yuugi retreats and gives him control.

For a moment he examines the arrangement, and then he upends the pail of packed, moist sand on the left side of their castle, and sets to work.

Yami has never built a sandcastle before, as far as he remembers. He is not entirely sure why he is doing it now, except that Yuugi has asked him to. Yuugi never said it aloud, but Yami knows that the reason he chose this place was in hopes that the sand might, on some level, be comforting to him, even familiar. It isn't. Yami only knows he was born in a desert because he was told, and sand means nothing to him. Still, Yuugi's consideration is admirable, and Yami is eternally grateful for it.

So he buries his hands in the sand, molding and shaping it as best he can, and somewhere along the line he begins to feel a strange satisfaction. Sand might not evoke visions of home, but as it slips through his fingers he imagines it flowing through the hourglass of his and Yuugi's lives, moving freely from future to past even as it is caught, shaped, and treasured. Each grain is a moment, each turret a memory. Together they are building something beautiful, something that is grand and marvelous, but at the same time personal.

Delicate.

Yami stills. For a second he sits back and considers their creation, wondering what it has become and what it is meant to be. He finds he does not know the answers, and this unsettles him more than his pride will let him admit.

_What are you thinking about, mou hitori no boku? _

Yuugi has noticed his preoccupation. Yami can feel the concern fluttering at the back of his mind like a lost butterfly, a feather-light touch on his heart that is gone as soon as it registers. He smiles.

"I was just thinking about our castle," he says, truthfully enough. "That maybe we should have built it further up the beach, above the tide line."

Yuugi laughs.

_But we needed to be close to the water or it wouldn't hold together, remember? _he says playfully. _Besides, that's one of the best things about sandcastles—you know the ocean's going to take it back before too long, so you have no choice but to appreciate it while you've got it_.

Yami runs his hand through the loose sand at his feet.

"I suppose you're right," he murmurs.

The moment stretches on, passes by, and they sit in incomplete silence, listening to the waves, the gulls, and their own single heartbeat.

_We should probably get going…_ Yuugi says eventually. The sun is setting now, and it's getting late.

"I would like to stay for a bit longer, if that's alright," Yami says, staring out at the sea, lost in thought. Yuugi has sensed that his mood has fallen, but he makes no comment.

_Okay_, he says instead. _But not too much longer. It's getting dark…_

"Not too much longer," Yami echoes, his eyes still trained on the water.

They sit in the sand beside their masterpiece, gilded in the fading light. The sun melds with the ocean in a splash of scarlet, and for an instant seems to hesitate, poised halfway between vibrant sky and sanguine waters. A moment of indecision and the illusion is over, but Yami still cannot bring himself to look away.

The light dwindles, the sun sinks inexorably into the sea, and he watches, silently, as the waves advance.

- End -

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**Author's Notes:**

**I know that some people find these distracting, but I personally enjoy reading author's notes (well, as long as they're about the story, anyway), so I'm going to include these by way of explanation and/or excuse. If you don't like them, don't read them. Simple as that.**

**(1) The end **is very deliberately worded. Mythology enthusiasts in the fandom will probably recognize the allusion to the similarities in Yami's true name and a certain Egyptian creator god's. This god, who was identified with the setting sun, was said to have emerged from the waters of chaos at the beginning of time, as he will return to them at time's end. I thought this was vaguely appropriate.

Similarly, the use of the word "sanguine" was picked for it's double meanings ("hopeful, optomistic," but also "blood-colored"). It might seem odd for the same word to mean both those things, but they are in fact connected. In the midieval belief people were said to be influenced of the "humors", four bodily fluids the balance of which determined ones personality. People who were dominated by blood had a "sanguine" disposition (derived from the Latin _sanguis_, meaning blood). People with a sanguine personality were known for being passionate, confident, and, according to answers dot com, were "marked by courage, hope, and a readiness to fall in love." Make of this what you will.

**(2) The sunset/The tide. **Yes, I am aware that in order for the sun to be setting over the water that Domino City would need to be located on the Western coast of Japan (in my defense, in that one episode at the pier the sun _does _set over the water). Yes, that means that in all likelyhood the "ocean" they are looking at is in fact the Sea of Japan. Yes, I am aware that the Sea of Japan doesn't actually have much in the way of what we would call tides. And my clever reason why all of this is excusable is because shut up. XD I wave my dramatic license at you!

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story and possibly the sort of random trivia at the end there as well. XD **

**Thanks for reading!**


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